Last year, I dabbled in container vegetable gardening, due to shoulder surgery that prevented me from digging in the veggie garden. Results were excellent, with one notable failure, and I’m encouraged to do more this season.
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Get inspired as Doreen G. Howard shares her backyard gardening tips. After all, she has grown more than 300 varieties of heirloom edibles and flowers the past two decades! Enjoy a nice mix of garden chat from news about exciting new vegetables to advice on container gardening to photos of unusual houseplants growing in her home! Doreen welcomes questions from everyone in the gardening community, from the expert to the enthusiast. This is your chance to ask all your puzzling plant care questions and just stay informed about the world of gardening. Check it out and tell us what you think!
Pot those veggies!
February 28, 2012
Apple Trees are a Delicious Investment
February 19, 2012
Have you thought about growing your own apples, pears, and Asian pears?
read moreWhy Do People Dislike Black Tomatoes?
February 10, 2012
In the dead of winter when grocery stores offer flavorless, hard tomatoes at astronomical prices, I found a package of five large, luscious black tomatoes for 49 cents today.
read moreValentine's gift from my garden and more strange plants
February 1, 2012
Yesterday, a small heart appeared in my hand. It’s a Russian Banana Fingerling potato that obviously forked and grew into a heart.
read moreYou Can Still Plant Tulips
January 23, 2012
I discovered a package of tulip bulbs on a garage shelf, behind a bag of soil sulfur, two weeks ago.
read moreAlaska is killing my plants!
January 13, 2012
Buried under 25 feet of snow, coastal Alaska gobbled up the winter cold and snow we normally have in the northern tier of the country. Chalk it up to the Arctic Oscillation, a rare phenomenon that is killing my perennials and shrubs.
read morePotting Fruit for Fast Harvests
January 6, 2012
New Year’s Day, I used the last of the blueberries I froze in July and August from the four shrubs in my garden to make a blueberry-wild plum wine reduction to go over grilled duck breasts.
read moreThree mistakes I won't make in 2012
January 3, 2012
Benjamin Franklin once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I plead guilty!
Every year I do things in the garden the same way and then wonder why the results aren’t what I expected. The New Year has led me to analyze my mistakes and to embark on a new path.
read morePoinsettia is an unlikely Christmas flower
December 7, 2011
Ruby, red poinsettias signaled Christmas to me as a child, especially growing up in balmy Southern California.
read moreGarden Talk: what's new, blue, and what I've seen lately
November 21, 2011
Even though gardening season is ending, new plants and ideas are popping up every day in press releases I receive, trade magazines and in the electronic media.
read moreBittersweet End to the Gardening Season
November 2, 2011
The first snowflakes of the season are falling as I write this. We avoided the October blizzard that hit the Northeast, but snow reliably falls here in the Upper Great Lakes after just Halloween.
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Have you seen those warty pumpkins and gourds at farmers markets, orchards and garden centers?
read moreHouseplants for black thumbs and travelers
October 15, 2011
As the leaves turn gold, orange and red, it is natural to think of greenery indoors and houseplants to the replace a landscape that is quickly going dormant for winter.
read morePlant breeders have the blues.
October 7, 2011
Blue roses at $50 a stem, vivid blue geranium houseplants and more of those shocking (some say ugly) blue orchids are headed your way.
read moreExtreme gardening saves plenty of dollars
September 30, 2011
Extreme couponers have nothing on me.
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